Systems and methods for displaying statistical information on a web page

ABSTRACT

A method for displaying information on a display screen of a user computer comprises sending a computer readable document from a server computer to the user computer for display on the display screen. The computer readable document includes links that are viewable on the display screen and are selectable to cause subsequent documents to be rendered on the display screen. The computer readable document further includes viewable information regarding selection of the links over a certain time.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/247,769, filed Sep. 19, 2002, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORDISPLAYING STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON A WEB PAGE,” which is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the field of computer networks, andin particular to the compilation and display of statistics relating tothe number of times certain links on a web page are accessed. Morespecifically, the invention relates to the display of such statistics inthe vicinity of the associated link so that a user may quickly evaluatethe number of times each link has been accessed.

Today's computer networks permit screen displays, commonly referred toweb pages, to be viewed on a computer display screen that is coupled tothe network. Using the Internet as an example, a web page of a given website may be produced on the user's display screen by using acommercially available web browser. The uniform record locator (URL) ofthe desired web site (the destination page URL) is typed into theappropriate box of the web browser, causing the destination web page tobe sent from a server computer to the user's computer.

Modern web pages often have various selectable links or icons that auser may select with a pointing device, such as a mouse, to cause thedestination web page to be displayed on the display screen. For example,many web sites have a home page with an outline or overview ofinformation that may be obtained from the site by selecting variouslinks or icons.

Web site designers or site administrators are often concerned with thelayout of the site web pages. For example, a designer may wish toorganize the page layout to optimize the number of hits for certainlinks. Such a process can be difficult if the information regardingtraffic on the site in unavailable or in an inconvenient format.

Hence, this invention is related to techniques for compiling anddisplaying statistics on how web pages are utilized. In one aspect, theinvention is related to compiling and displaying information on thenumber of times each link is selected. In this way, the layout of a webpage may be optimized to enhance access to various links.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a method is provided for displaying statisticalinformation regarding the use of a web page on a display screen of auser computer. According to the method, a computer readable document issent from a server computer to the user computer to permit the documentto be displayed on the display screen. The computer readable documentincludes links that are viewable on the display screen and areselectable to cause subsequent documents to be rendered on the displayscreen. The computer readable document further includes viewableinformation regarding selection of the links over a certain time.Preferably, the computer readable document is used to produce a web pageon the user computer using a web browser. In this way, the trafficpatterns for the web page are provided in a user friendly format topermit a user to quickly evaluate how the web page is being utilized.

In one aspect, the viewable information indicates the number of timeseach link has been selected. This information may conveniently bedisplayed adjacent to each link. For example, a bracketed number may beplaced adjacent to each link to include the number of times the link hasbeen selected over a given time. In this way, the web page may be viewedto obtain a visual depiction of how often each link has been accessed.With such a configuration, a designer may move and/or alter the linksand then quickly evaluate the effect of the changes. In this manner, theweb page may be optimized to ensure the more profitable links areconfigured to receive the highest traffic, and less popular links may bemodified to enhance their use, or removed altogether.

In a further aspect, a log is maintained with the server computer ofeach time each link is accessed. Periodically, this log is parsed toextract the appropriate information regarding selection of the links.This information is then stored in a statistical database. For example,the log may be parsed to extract destination web page information andreferrer web page information that together uniquely define each link.Each match is then stored in a field of the database. Each time the samecombination of destination page information and referrer pageinformation are found, the number associated with that field isincremented by one. When displaying the statistical information with theweb page, the statistical database is accessed to extract the storedvalues.

One convenient way to transmit the viewable information regarding theselection of the links to the user computer is by incorporating thisinformation into destination page uniform record locators that areassociated with each link. In this way, a program, such as a DHTMLprogram, may be used to extract the information regarding the number oflink accesses from the uniform record locators and to display thisinformation adjacent to each link. Since the viewable information islocated in the uniform record locators, they may also be viewed bymoving a pointer over the links to cause the browser to display theuniform record locator for the destination page on the display screen.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a data carrier signalhaving information to produce a current web page on a display screen.The current web page includes at least one link to a destination pagethat is selectable to cause a server computer to send a subsequent datacarrier signal containing the destination web page so that it may bedisplayed on the display screen. The current web page further includesviewable information regarding selection of the links of the current webpage over a certain time. Such information may include, for example, thenumber of times each link has been selected. This information mayconveniently be displayed adjacent to the associated link.

In one aspect, the information in the data carrier signal includesdestination page uniform record locators that are associated with eachlink. Conveniently, the number of times that each link has been selectedmay be included in the destination page uniform record locators.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer network that may be used toimplement the techniques of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical web page having a set of destination webpage links.

FIG. 3 illustrates the web page of FIG. 2 when modified to displaystatistical information on the number of times that each link has beenselected according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating one method for compiling anddisplaying information on the number of times that links of a web pagehave been selected according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides techniques for recording, compiling anddisplaying statistics on the selection of various links contained in webpages. As is known in the art, many web pages include links that areselectable to produce a subsequent web page (referred to as thedestination page) on the user's display screen. These links may take onvarious forms, such as underlined or highlighted words, URL addresses,icons, photographs, login buttons or other buttons, messages and thelike. The user may select these links using a pointing device, such as amouse, to take the user to the new web page as is known in the art.According to the invention, each time one of these links is selected, arecord of the selection is stored. This information is then compiled anddisplayed on a statistical web page that is similar to the original webpage but includes the statistical information regarding the access. Inthis way, information regarding access to the links is displayedadjacent each of the links to permit a user to visualize both the layoutof the web page and the statistical information regarding access to eachof the links.

Such a page rendering therefore permits a web designer or siteadministrator to quickly evaluate how a given web page is being used.With such information the web designer may modify the web site tooptimize access to the most popular links, thereby optimizing revenue.For example, a web designer may move certain links to different regionsand quickly determine the effect of such a change. Other types ofchanges that may quickly be evaluated include changes of font style orsize, colors, wording and the like. By knowing the traffic patterns fora given web page, certain links can be more effectively marketed toincrease revenue for the site.

A wide variety of statistics may be recorded and compiled relating tothe access of the links. For example, the information may be the numberof times that each link is selected over a certain time. The statisticalinformation could also include the percentage that each link on a givenpage has been accessed, i.e. a given link may be accessed 65% of thetime, while the other link is accessed 35% of the time. If personalinformation on each user is tracked, further data may also be included,such as the age, gender, race, or other categories. In this way, adisplay may be provided showing a further breakdown of the type of userselecting each link. Other possible data categories that may bedisplayed include the time of day, day of the week, revenue that isgenerated for a given link, the number of page renderings, total clicksper page, the number of repeat users, and the like.

The visual depiction may take a variety of forms, such as a numericaldisplay of the number of times each link has been selected adjacent tothe appropriate link. Other depictions include graphicalrepresentations, percentages, other symbols, and the like. Further, theweb page may be configured so that when a pointer is hovered over one ofthe links, the destination uniform record locator of the destinationpage is displayed. The destination uniform record locator may includethe number of times that the link has been accessed.

The techniques of the invention may be implemented using standardInternet or network equipment, such as web servers, web serverdatabases, and the like. Accordingly, the invention may be implementedusing any type of computer network, including, for example, theInternet, intranets, local area networks, wide area networks, wirelessnetworks, and the like. Further, the web pages of the invention may beviewed using any type of computer having a web browser that may becoupled to a network, including personal computers, portable computers,personal digital assistants, cell phones with web browsers, and thelike.

Referring now to FIG. 1, one implementation of a computer network 10that may be used to implement the techniques of the invention will bedescribed. In so doing, it will be appreciated that the invention is notintended to be limited to a particular network configuration, hardwareor architecture. Rather, FIG. 1 merely illustrates one way in which theinvention may be implemented, and those skilled in the art willrecognize other equivalent ways to implement the invention using acomputer network.

Computer network 10 is implemented using the Internet 12 as theinfrastructure for transmitting data between computers as is known inthe art. To access a certain web site, a user enters into a computer 14a destination web site address using a keyboard 16. Access to a givenweb site may be obtained by any one of a variety of computers which aredesignated generally by reference numeral 14. Computer 14 includes acommercially available web browser that permits the URL of the web siteto be entered and displayed on a display screen 18. The request isprocessed by a router 20 and transmitted to any one of a set of servers22, 24 or 26 which are each associated with a database 28, 30 or 32,respectively. Further, it will be appreciated that network connectionsmay be made to permit any server to access any database. Afterextracting the appropriate information from the database, the assignedserver sends back a HTML document to computer 14 where the web page isrendered on display screen 18.

The web page rendered on display screen 18 may include one or more linksthat may be selected using a mouse or other pointing device to causeanother destination web page to be displayed on display screen 18 in amanner similar to that just described. This web page then becomes thecurrent web page, and the previous web page is referred to as areferring web page. This same process may be performed by multiple usersso that large numbers of users may simultaneous access the pages of agiven web site.

A log of each user session is recorded by servers 22, 24 and 26 in a logfile. The log file thus includes a record of each destination page andeach referring page, with each pair uniquely defining a given link. Forexample, if the current (referring) page has a URL of “A”, and thedestination page has a URL of “B” when a link “L” is selected, then thesession includes a log of “A” and “B” when link “L” was selected.Throughout the day, each server may record multiple log files.

Periodically, such as at the end of the day, these log files may beparsed to determine the number of times each link was accessed. This maybe accomplished by searching for pairs of referring and destination pageURLs and storing these in fields in a statistics database 34. Thenumbers of each of such pairs is stored in database 34 to produce arecord of the number of times each link was selected for a given timeperiod.

When a user, such as a system administrator or web page designer, wishesto view the pages of the web site along with the number of times eachlink has been accessed, a server 36 is placed into statistics mode usinga registry setting of server 36. The URL address for one of the webpages located on this server is entered using one of computers 14 torender the HTML page. Every element of this web page is then parsedthrough by server 36 to determine what links the web page includes. Whena link is encountered, the destination web page URL is obtained. Thedestination web page URL along with the URL of the current page are thenqueried against database 34 to determine the number of times this linkhas been accessed. Such a process is done for each link of the requestedweb page.

The information on the number of times each link has been accessed isincorporated into the URL of the destination web page that is associatedwith each link and transmitted back to computer 14. The browser ofcomputer 14 then renders the requested page. If a pointer is hoveredover one of the links, the destination URL is displayed on displayscreen 18 along with the number of times that link has been accessed.Further, a dynamic HTML or JAVA script may be used to extract the accessinformation from the destination URL and to display this information onthe web page adjacent to each link. In this way, the web page maintainsits overall appearance, but also includes the number of times each linkwas accessed. With this configuration, the user may quickly visualizetraffic patterns on the web page.

Referring now to FIG. 2, one depiction of a web page 40 is shown andwill be used to illustrate the display of statistical informationrelating to link access. In so doing, it will be appreciated that webpage 40 is merely representative of a wide variety of web pages withwhich the techniques of the invention may be used. Web page 40 isrendered by a web browser and, as such, may include various buttons tomove forward a page or back a page, to move to a home page, to refreshthe page, to search, to access favorites, to print, and the like as isknown in the art. Web page 40 includes an address box 42 where the URLaddress of the current page is displayed. As is known in the art, theURL address may be changed to take the user to a destination page.

As shown, the URL address includes a component, designated by “c=” andthe page within the component, designated by “htx=”. Merely by way ofexample, web page 40 may be the home page of the “myfamily.com” website, where c=home and htx=loginfront. Web page 40 further includesboxes 44 and 46 for entering a user name and password to permit the userto access authorized web pages. A login button 48 may be selected oncethe user name and password have been entered. Displayed on web page 40are a variety of categories and features with associated links. Theselinks may be selected to transfer the user to destination web pageshaving more information for the given category or feature. Merely by wayof example, category A may be for personal finance, with links 1-4containing various articles relating to personal financing. Category Bmay be for sporting events, with links 1-3 have articles on variousteams or events. The features categories may be for health relatedissues. As will be appreciated, a wide variety of such categories andfeatures may be provided. Also shown in a photograph box 50 that may beselected to produce a larger image of the photograph or to take the userto another web page or web site.

As is known within the art, a pointer 52 may be moved over web page 40to select the various links. When moved over a link, the shape of thepointer may change as shown in FIG. 3. Further, web page 40 includes adestination address box 54 where the destination URL address of the linkabove which the pointer is hovering is displayed. In this case, it isthe destination address for link 3 of category B. In such a case, thedestination URL may be configured such that c=sports and htx=main.

Each time one of the links is selected, a log is kept of both thedestination URL and the current or referring URL. This is then used totrack the number of times each link is accessed as previously described.Shown in FIG. 3 is one way in which such statistical data may bedisplayed. FIG. 3 shows a web page 40′ which is essentially identical toweb page 40 of FIG. 2 except that web page 40′ includes a depiction ofthe number of times each link has been accessed adjacent to each link.For convenience of illustration, the same reference numerals will beused in FIG. 3, followed by a “′”.

To produce web page 40′, the URL address for the server which has beenenabled with the statistics capability is entered. For example, if webpage 40 is produced by entering the address: www.myfamily.com, then webpage 40′ may be produced by entering an address. The statistical webserver then transmits a HTML document having the information needed torender web page 40′, which includes the destination URLs for each linkalong with the number of times each link has been accessed in a mannersimilar to that previously described. A DHTML program is executed toextract the access information and to display this information inbrackets as shown in FIG. 3. In this way, the user is able to see amodified rendering of web page 40 which includes a display of the numberof times each link has been accessed over a given time. As is evidentfrom FIG. 3, the traffic patterns of web page 40′ are readily viewed andpermit a quick analysis of how the web page is being utilized. With sucha configuration, web page 40 may be modified, and then quicklyreevaluated to determine the effects of such changes.

Another feature of web page 40′ is that the link access information mayalso be viewed by hovering over a given link. For example, as shown inFIG. 3, pointer 52 is over link 3. As a result, the destination addressis displayed in box 54. Just after the “?”, is the number “127” whichrepresents the number of times link 3 has been accessed.

Referring now to FIG. 4, one method for producing and displaying linkaccess information will be described. The process begins at step 100where the current web page is displayed on the display screen of acomputer. In step 102, a link to a destination page is selected. Inturn, the destination web page is rendered on the display screen.Further, a log of this activity is recorded as shown in step 104.Periodically, the log file is parsed with an agent to determine thenumber of link selections based on the destination and referring URLsthat uniquely define each link as shown in step 106. This information isstored in appropriate fields in a statistical database.

When ready to visualize a web page with a display of the number of linkselections, a web server is enabled using a registry setting as shown instep 108. This server is accessed by requesting the “modified” currentpage having the statistics as shown in step 110. The web server thenparses the elements of the current page and, when reaching a link,determines the destination URL of the link and the URL of the currentpage as shown in step 112. The database is then queried for the fieldcontaining the same destination and referring (current) page URL asshown in step 114. From that field, the number of times the link hasbeen accessed is obtained and incorporated into the destination URLs.

As shown in step 116, the modified web page document is then sent to theuser computer. In step 118, a program is run to extract the accessinformation from the URLs and to display the statistics next to each ofthe links.

The invention has now been described in detail for purposes of clarityand understanding. However, it will be appreciated that certain changesand modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for tracking website activity, the system comprising: one or more server systems; one or more computer systems communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems; and one or more databases communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems, wherein the one or more server systems are configured to perform the following operations to track website activity comprising: for a plurality of web pages, including a source page displaying links to one or more destination pages, tracking activity relating to a number of times each link of the source page has been selected by one or more users navigating among the web pages over a period of time; parsing the source page to identify the links displayed on the source page; determining the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users; transmitting tracking information for each link to the one or more computer systems, wherein the tracking information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that includes the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and receiving instructions from the one or more computers systems to modify the source page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising: with the one or more computer systems: extracting from each URL, the number of times each corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and displaying on the source page the number of times each link has been selected by displaying a value adjacent each link corresponding to the number of times the link has been selected.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises the number of times the corresponding link has been selected.
 4. The system of claim 2, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises a percentage that each link has been selected in relation to the other links of the source page.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein the value is displayed adjacent each link as a pointer displayed by the one or more computer systems is hovered over the link or in close proximity thereto.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer systems are communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems via a network.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more databases are communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems via a network.
 8. A method for tracking website activity, the method comprising: for a plurality of web pages, including a source page displaying links to one or more destination pages, tracking activity relating to a number of times each link of the source page has been selected by one or more users navigating among the web pages over a period of time; parsing the source page to identify the links displayed on the source page; determining the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users; transmitting tracking information for each link to a computer system for display on the computer system, wherein the tracking information for each link includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and receiving instructions from the computer system to modify the source page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, with the computer system: extracting from each URL, the number of times each corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and displaying on the source page the number of times each link has been selected by displaying a value adjacent each link corresponding to the number of times the link has been selected.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises the number of times the corresponding link has been selected.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises a percentage that each link has been selected in relation to the other links of the source page.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein the value is displayed adjacent each link as a pointer displayed by the computer system is hovered over the link or in close proximity thereto.
 13. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing in a database the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users.
 14. A method for tracking website activity, the method comprising: providing a source web page for display to one or more users, the source web page including a plurality of links to one or more destination web pages; generating a log file when a link of the source web page is selected, the log file comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the source web page and a URL for a destination web page that uniquely define the selected link, wherein over a period of time one or more servers generate a plurality of such log files; parsing the plurality of log files to determine a number of times each link of the source web page has been selected; in response to a user's request, transmitting tracking information to one or more computer systems for each link of the source web page for subsequent display on the one or more computer systems, wherein the tracking information includes the destination web page URL for each link and the number of times each link has been selected from the source web page; and receiving instructions from the one or more computer systems to modify the source web page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.
 15. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, wherein parsing the plurality of log files to determine the number of times each link has been selected comprises searching the plurality of log files for record entries that include the source web page and destination web page URLs that uniquely define each link.
 16. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, further comprising modifying the destination web page URL for each link to include the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page.
 17. The method for tracking website activity of claim 16, further comprising extracting from a first destination web page URL, the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page.
 18. The method for tracking website activity of claim 17, wherein the information is extracted from the first destination web page URL in response to a pointer displayed by the one or more computer systems being hovered over the corresponding link or being in close proximity thereto.
 19. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, further comprising: with a server computer system, performing the following operations: providing a plurality of source web pages that each include a plurality of links to one or more destination web pages; generating a log file entry each time a link is selected from one of the plurality of source web pages, wherein each log file entry comprises a URL for the corresponding source web page and a URL for the corresponding destination web page that uniquely define the selected link, wherein over a period of time a plurality of such log file entries are generated; parsing the log file entries to determine a number of times each link of the plurality of source web pages has been selected; storing in a database, the number of times each link has been selected by associating in the database the number of times each link has been selected with the corresponding source web page URL and destination web page URL; receiving a URL for a first source web page from a first computer system; parsing the first source web page to determine the links to destination web pages that the first source web page includes; obtaining the destination web page URL for each link of the first source web page; querying the database with the source web page URL and destination web page URL corresponding to each link of the first source web page to determine the number of times each link of the first source web page has been selected; and transmitting information to the first computer system on the number of times each link of the first source web page has been selected.
 20. The method for tracking website activity of claim 19, further comprising placing the server computer system into a statistics mode before the first source web page is parsed to determine the links to destination web pages that the first source web page includes. 